In blog 187 I told you about the ‘adventure’ I had in 1986, when we found an unknown deserted building near Skiti Provata. When we entered the large complex we could still feel the presence of the monks who once lived there: their boots, hats and monks-robes were lying on the floor and a passport of one of them showed out that they came from Ukraine. They embarked in Odessa in 1916 and after visiting Istanbul and Jeruzalem, they ended up on Mt. Athos, never to leave again. They died probably in the 70-ties or 80-ties of the last century. In 702 we solved some of the mystery and we discovered the exact location and the Greek name of the cell.

Today I found this old picture of Timiou Stavrou on Ebay:

And to my surprize I found out that this was the original picture of the one I had on this ‘kwitantia’ (see nr 192), which I found in the former library of the cell (the smaller building on the right).

The original black and white picture gives us more details: now we can see that there was a sort of garden in front of the main building with a low fence and a fountain. This is how the fountain and the building looked in 1986:

and here a picture of the interior in 1986:

More information can be found in in blog 798, and from the pictures in this blog you could see that the cell was inhabited again.

Today I also found these recent pictures of the cell:

It looks like the renovation of the building is continuing, because a part of the wall looks white again and new glass is placed in some windows!

Here is part of the interior of the church, which is also in use again. According to the Russian photographer of these pictures the Russian name of the cell is Krestovozdvizhenskai, the Exaltation of the Cross.

This small ossuarium also belongs to the cell: the bones and skull of the monk of whome I found a passport probably lie here……………..

Wim, 3/11